Post-apocalyptic holidays

My apologies for getting this post up late. My husband and I decided at the last minute to go out of town for the long weekend. So we loaded up the van, packed up the kids, and took off for parts unknown (well, unknown to us, anyway).

But the trip got me thinking—what will happen to the holidays after the apocalypse? By holidays I don’t mean vacations, I mean the major holidays. Days like Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah, Thanksgiving—that sort of thing. Would the holidays still be celebrated? Would anyone remember them? Would anybody care?

Holidays are an important part of any culture. They provide a time for families to get together (though whether or not these get-togethers are a good thing is up to each individual family). They also provide a time for celebration. But in the post-apocalyptic world, will holidays still be important?

I think it’s possible that apocalypse survivors will come together (at least in their survivor groups) during the holidays, maybe using it as a rallying point. Or maybe they’ll see it as a chance to celebrate being alive.

I also think it’s just as likely that survivors will ignore the holidays completely. The passage of time will probably be hard to track. It’ll be hard to figure out what day it is, let alone the month. Or maybe people won’t feel like celebrating. After the end of the world, I can see how people would feel that way.

When survivors of the apocalypse rebuild society, what holidays do you think will survive? Will any? What new holidays could be created? Will holidays still be celebrated?

About char

I'm Canadian, which according to movies and TV means I'm part of the group that's almost always wiped out during the apocalypse. I’ve watched too much Star Trek and Stargate over the years and spend too much time at my computer. Now, I'm waiting for the arrival of (and human enslavement by) the Borg or the Goa'uld. That is, if my computer doesn’t swallow me first. When I'm not at ICoS, you can find me on Twitter @ApocalypseMama or on my blog at apocalypsemama.com. Of course, you can always email me at Char(at)incaseofsurvival(dot)com.

I think we’ll have some cult holidays. … maybe holidays fixed around eclipses and meteors and the like. And once we give up on actual calendars and this is the day that the thing happened. We’ll have more Meccas and locations to celebrate and solstices will be a big dead as they’ll be when we have death, and food, and chemicals that make us happy increasing and decreasing.

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